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Christmas Presence
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"Oh, come on, you haven't played Father Christmas in three years, Hagrid. Please?"
Rubeus Hagrid looked down on the slender woman, doing his best not to cave in. "Petunia, I dun' think we really need me t' play Father Christmas, now. They're all teenagers, and a mite too old, don'tcha think?"
"Hogwash!" stated the muggle. Petunia Dursley was well known for her intense Christmas spirit, and she did her best to include everyone in it. "Who says I want a Father Christmas for the kids? I like to enjoy the full holiday experience, you know! Besides, I think Dobby and Winky would get a kick out of being your 'little helpers'."
In the end, the only thing Hagrid could do was agree to pull the oversized suit out of mothballs.
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The Hogwarts Express pulled into Platform Nine and Three Quarters right on time, and all of the students who chose to go home for the Christmas Hols poured out, racing to join their families. Ron looked at his twin brothers as he passed them, saying, "They're at it again." Then he sighed, and blushed, as he kissed Hermione briefly. "I'll... I'll owl you, and see you when the hols are over, okay?"
"Of course, Ronald," she answered, and kissed him back - directly on the lips, sending his blush into overdrive. She grinned, and sashayed her hips as she headed to her own family. "See you in January!" she called over her shoulder.
"PUT ME DOWN!" called out a slightly younger female voice, shaking Ron out of his stupor. "Put me down, or I swear I'll bat-bogey you like you've never been bat-bogeyed before!"
"Now, now, Ickle Gin-gin," cackled Fred as he jogged past Ron with Ginny over his shoulder. "What would dear old Mum say if she saw the manner in which you said goodbye to Harrikins, eh?"
"Indeed, my good man," chuckled George, who was likewise carryng a confused Harry over his shoulder. "Would give her a good fright, I'd say."
"You wouldn't dare!" shrieked Ginny.
"Au contraire, mon... err, whatever the french for Sister is," contradicted George,
"We would indeed... unless..." continued Fred as he set Ginny down on the platform.
"Unless you realized it was in your best interest not to?" challenged their baby sister with a saccharine voice.
"Err..."
"She's right, you know," said the otherwise uncomplaining Harry as he was set down nearly twenty feet away. "She knows where you sleep, both at home and Hogwarts."
"Oh, Pshaw," started Fred. "What would ou dear, sweet sister..."
George, on the other hand, turned a little white. "Umm, Fred, might wanna check yourself, there."
Ginny had her wand out, and pointed somewhere OTHER than Fred's Face. "I don't think we want to find out what would happen if I aimed a bat-bogey hex THERE, do we?"
"Right, no telling. Mum's the word to Mum indeed!" hastily corrected her brother. "And come to think of it, that WOULD be being bat-bogeyed like I've never been bat-bogeyed before."
Ron rolled his eyes. "If you are all done playing around, Mum's gonna go spare if we're not out there as soon as possible."
They gathered their various belongings, and headed out to meet their respective families, with the twins deliberately inserting themselves between Ginny and Harry. "Ron's been hanging around Hermione too much, eh?" muttered George to Harry.
"Depends on whether her behaviour is transferred by saliva," he answered.
"EWWW! Harry, that was a horrible mental image! I'm so proud of you!"
Several minutes later, and one last desparate, lingering kiss between Harry and Ginny, and the families were on their way back to their respetive homes. Vernon and Petunia were grinning like fiends, and Dudley kept sneaking glances at his cousin and snickering.
"What?" Harry finally demanded of Dudley.
"Remember Christmas hols your first year?"
"Yeah? What about them?"
Dudley jerked a thumb in the direction the Weasleys had left. "Looks like I was right She IS your girlfriend, and I bet Hermione is Ron's by now."
Harry was about to protest, then decided a different tactic was required. "And what about you? Smeltings is an all-boys school, if I remember right."
Shrugging, his cousin let out a secret smile. "Maybe. But we do have new neighbors... and Smeltings let out last week for the hols."
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It was midnight, Christmas Eve, and Harry and Dudley met up in the hallway between their rooms like they had for the past few years. "Torch?" asked Harry.
Dudley held up a rather large Maglight, the type that carries several D-cell batteries. "Check!"
"Tape for emergency repairs?"
"Check!"
"Spare pre-tied bows?"
"Check!"
"Invisibility cloak? Check!" Harry answered himself.
"Best use you ever put it to, I bet," snickered Dudley softly.
"Right. Now, come on, let's go!" Harry threw the cloak over himself and his cousin, and they crept silently down the stairs.
The first year they had tried this, they discovered that if the maglight was set on low, placed on an end table, and pointed at the ceiling, it gave enough light to let them see, but not enough to wake anybody up. So as they passed, a slightly chubby hand reached out, and set up their light, and neither one noticed the cloak slipped slightly, exposing their feet.
BANG! The sudden noise startled both boys. "Harry Potter and Duddles Doozley is not supposed to be here!" insisted a squeaky, high-pitched voice.
It was Dobby and Winky, in their new Holiday Uniforms. Dobby was wearing a green tunic trimmed in white fake fur, a pointed hat with a bell on the end, candy-striped hose, and shoes that curled up at the toes. Winky, meanwhile, was wearing a red dress with white fur trim, a white broad belt, and tiny little shoes similar to Dobby's but with the hint of high heels. "It is being almost Christmas," continued Winky, "and you's is supposed to be being in bed!" She frowned at the boys, and tapped her foot impatiently.
Both boys froze, as the elves had been in their normal uniforms earlier and they had not seen these new outfits. Right now, in the dim light of the torch, all they could see was, for all practical purposes, two of Santa's Elves guarding a pile of presents around the Christmas Tree.
Harry couldn't resist. He let out a snicker.
Dudley, on the other hand, let go full blast, laughing so hard tears reached his eyes. "Perfect!" he declared. "You two are ruddy PERFECT!"
"Shhh, Duddles Doozley!" insisted Dobby, fighting a grin of pride. "You is going to be waking the house!"
A flick of a switch, and light filled the room. Both boys froze, and turned. The invisibility cloak slipped further away, and they turned to see Uncle Vernon, his face stern. "More like you have already woken the house. Boys, you were told last year not to do this."
Dudley shrugged. "But it's a tradition, now," he insisted.
Harry nodded. "Gotta follow tradition," he noted.
Vernon smiled briefly. "Precisely. Which is why this year, I started a new tradition. Your grampa Albus set up a ward on this room. Anyone enters, invisibility cloak or not, and I am woken up."
Their faces fell. "But Uncle Vernon," began Harry.
"Don't Uncle Vernon me. Up to your rooms, the both of you. And I don't want to see you out of there until seven o'clock, at the earliest, do you hear me?"
"Yes, sir," they both groaned. Dudley picked up and turned off the torch, and Harry gathered up the invisibility cloak.
It was going to be a loooong seven hours, both boys thought.
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At last, seven o'clock came, and both boys bolted out of their rooms. Dudley made it to the stairs first, as his room was closer, but Harry passed him by sliding down the bannister. They heard Petunia in the kitchen working on breakfast, and likely the start of Christmas Feast, as well, and so ran to the living room to ambush their store of presents.
Which, of course, were gone.
"Mum!" wailed Dudley. "Where'd they go?"
"Now, now, you'll just have to wait and open them with the rest of us, okay?" she placated them.
"Just great," muttered Dudley. "Prolly 'cause we got caught last night."
"Maybe," said Harry, "but maybe it's part of something they've been planning. I mean, the new uniforms for Dobby and Winky were definitely not a whim."
Sighing, Dudley sat down at the kitchen table, and started eating breakfast. Harry ate his own, and watched, and realized Dudley actually ate less than Ron. Where the lanky redhead put it, he had no idea.
Soon enough, the guests started arriving. The Weasleys, of course, along with Sirius, Remus, and Dumbledore. To their surprise, Hagrid showed up on Sirius' motorcycle (on the ground, not flying), dressed as Santa with a house elf on each shoulder, playing Father Christmas. All too soon, they forgot about being in trouble earlier, and just enjoyed themselves.
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"Going somewhere, outcast?" sneered a raspy voice.
Draco turned to see who it was, wand out, and saw Nott. "Does that even matter to you?" he asked, and just in case, began a spell to record the events in his wand.
Crabbe by his side, Nott swaggered closer. "It all depends. Going to send an owl, were you?"
Instantly, the young Malfoy's mind went into threat assessment mode. Crabbe was big, and quite cruel, but was slow, stupid, and had barely more magic than a squib. Nott, however, was lean and rangy, with nearly the mystic potential Malfoy himself had. He decided immediately that if something happened, a quick stunner should take care of Crabbe, but he would need to do so on the move, and then hammer Nott to keep him from awakening the oaf until he either got a clear shot, or interference arrived. "Again, that is none of your concern."
Nott leaned close to Malfoy, his own wand out. "I know, Blood traitor. I know what you saw. And what you didn't have the stomach for."
"How? Never mind. Leave me, you misanthropic fool."
Crabe sat there trying to figure out what Draco had just called Nott, which gave the blonde Slytherin his opportunity. Knowing the comment had momentarily disabled him as quickly as any spell, he immediatly sub-vocalized "Petrificus Totalis!" At Point black range, and not expecting it, Nott's arms and legs snapped together, and he pitched forward stiff as a board.
This caught Crabbe's attention, and seemingly forgetting about his wand, he roared and charged his former boss. Draco simply sidestepped, and shot a quick stunner that felled him like a log.
Looking at his former comrades, he got an idea. He called for one of Hogwart's House Elves, and sent a message to Goyle and Zabini. Yes, this would most certainly work to his advantage.
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Sleep rarely came to Serverus Snape willingly, especially since the incident with the dementors a little over a year and a half ago. Yet, somehow, it did this night.
Dreams and nightmares passed their usual way through his psyche, but soon faded as he found himself on a tower that was at once strange and familiar. The castle was not hogwarts, he was certain, but he was also certain he would remember it if he concentrated hard enough.
"A year has been lost," said a voice. The voice did not surprise him, but its message did.
"A year? Why?" Snape asked.
"Destiny reaches to the breaking point. In three months, you will choose."
"What shall I choose?"
"You know what you will choose."
And indeed, he did know. And he also know which of his two options he must choose, for he had no other choice.
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"Wormtail, is our little present ready?" demanded a hissing voice devoid of all human warmth. Hideous pale hands, larger than they should be with long, spindly fingers gently stroked the head of a massive cobra.
A short, scrawny man with rodent like features, long scraggly hair, and fraying, patched robes bowed deeply. "It is, My Lord. Lucius awaits your command."
"Excellent. Then let the games begin." He laughed, a high pitched cackle that froze the blood, and it echoed through the dank, musty chamber.
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"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
The scream tore through Number Four Privet Drive, waking up all of the residents and houseguests. Ron, Fred, and George, who were in Harry's room, were the first to react.
Harry was screaming at the top of his lungs, and writhing in apparant agony. His scar was bleeding profusely, and the rest of his body was caked in a cold sweat.
"Oh Merlin! Fred, go get Dumbledore quickly! George, get Ginny!" demanded Ron.
"Why Ginny?" asked George.
"JUST GET HER!" he yelled.
However, neither twin even made it out of the room, as a small redheaded blur raced in, shortly followed by nearly the entire adult compliment. "Harry!" cried Ginny, throwing herself across him. "Harry, wake up, it's okay, it's okay!"
Dumbledore bent over, and gently picked her up off of the spasming boy. "Sirius, Bill, I need you to put up every ward you can around this room at once, especially those dealing with the mind!" he barked. Turning back to harry, he began muttering under his breath, and stroking the bleeding scar.
As Bill and Sirius immediately began casting the wards, Harry visibly settled down, but did not wake up. "My god," gasped Vernon. "What happened?"
Dumbledore sighed, as the boy in his charge drifted into what seemed like a dreamless sleep. "I am not certain... but I beleive Voldemort has found a way to use the connection between Harry and himself to inflict some form of harm on the boy, even at a distance. His reactions were those of a victim of the Cruciatus - one who suffered it for an extended period, from multiple tormentors."
"Merlin! Should we take him to St Mungos?" asked Arthur Weasley.
"No. Right now, this room is the only place safe enough for him, with the possible exception of Hogwarts, and that not until we add to its mental wards." He glanced up. "Remus, while they are occupied adding to the wards, please floo to the hospital wing and retreive Poppy."
Ginny had managed to get to the other side of Harry's bed by this time, and sat on the edge. She took his hand in hers, and began crying. Eventually, she curled up beside him, and cried herself to sleep.
Nobody wanted to move her, not even when Poppy arrived.
A/N: Now, see what happens when half a year's worth of dreams and visions from Voldemort come slamming down at once, heheh? Snape seems to have made his choice... but what will it be? And we still don't know what Remus' new job is, do we? Sorry for the short chapter, but otherwise it would either end in the middle of a scene, or would be three times as long...
My reviewers:
Harry94Ginny:
That's odd. Wonder why it did that...
lily101:
Heh, I had it planned. Thing is, Ginny seemed to have forgotten that Harry told her he knew about her visions when he returned from the Third Task, but we'll chalk that up to her distress.
snuffles 007: Heh, yeah, I just wrote how I would treat Fawkes if I was Harry.
Mandalorian Jedi:
Probably not, actually.
Shannon Snape:
I dunno... you might be angry with me pretty soon. I've been saving up on Harry Torture, y'see...
Darklight:
D has no desire to win the battle at this time. Neither side really espouses his own personal beleifs, but then again neithr side entirely negates them, either.
Shinigami:
In a way, but more of as a"This could have happened, but Fate got kicked in the patootie" kinda way. And in my fic, I picture Frank Longbottom as being a forceful, sharp-witted man, almost the opposite in some ways to Canon Neville.
FrequencyQueen:
Heheh. You KNOW Canon Snape would have BEGGED for just such a happening.
PlatinumRoseLady:
Yeah... but next time we see Fawkes, he'll be feeling a lot better. Too bad harry won't... and hey, sometimes you just gotta take things literally, eh?
Maxennce:
Yes, he does. For now. MWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!